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Friday, 26 April 2013

Walk through any woodland in the middle of the day and you will hear birds singing, insects buzzing and perhaps if lucky you may even see the odd deer. It has to be said that we probably only spot a tiny fraction of the wildlife that is around. This is usually because we make far too much noise, visit at the wrong time, or simply look without seeing - a case of not seeing the wood for the trees I suppose. On some occasions when stepping into a wood I even get the feeling I have just missed something special - a wild party perhaps. Looking closely I may see the fragmented shells of acorns, some scuffed ground with scattered feathers, perhaps a shadowy movement in the distance, even a scuffle in the undergrowth, but one thing for sure the party seems to be over now the human has arrived.

Being the average noisy human, tracking and recognising animal signs has become a valuable skill alongside my photography that I have had to develop. As a result I have spent a lot of time searching for animal tracks and signs and it never ceases to amaze me just how much unseen animal activity takes place each day/night.

For example a couple of weeks ago while wandering alongside a stream in a wood I have permission to visit near Barnard Castle I spotted signs that a frog had been predated.

Frog ovaries containing eggs

A little further upstream I also noticed a partial paw print on the stream margin but unfortunately the track was pretty degraded having been partly eroded by the stream. Looking closely at the track I thought it looked a bit like otter, but beyond that it could have been anything really. A search further along the shallow stream margin did not produce anything else and I had doubts that considering the size of the stream (you could step over it in one good stride in some places) an otter would be unlikely to stray up here a long way from the river Tees and its larger tributaries. On the other hand I have heard anecdotal evidence of otter sightings miles from rivers, and believe it or not, even a sighting of one on the slopes of Mickle Fell by someone from Natural England.

Doubts aside I decided to keep an open mind and made a couple more visits but found little other than more frog remains. Then at the beginning of last week I spotted some spraint on the bank side.

Otter spraint containing frog remains

Still unconvinced I gave it a sniff. It is probably worth mentioning at this point that folk obsessed by otters regularly sniff any spraint that contains lots of fish bones. If it is from another carnivore such as mink you will get that unmistakable pungent smell of carnivore. On the other hand if it is otter spraint you will notice a slight fishy smell that surprisingly is not at all unpleasant. Some people describe it as the smell of Jasmine Tea but to be honest I have never got that. There was it has to be said something fishy going on and a quick look around confirmed it beyond all doubt when I spotted the unmistakable paw prints of an otter only a few feet away.

Otter paw print

These were only hours old and so fresh I decided to make a plaster cast of the print.

A cast of the print

Its hard to see on a pic of this size so I have roughly outlined the key features of the print which has five toes as opposed to the four which can be seen in a domestic dog or fox track.

This is also a fairly big print at 9cm long and just under 8cm at the widest point. In fact the size makes me wonder whether this is actually an adult male. If so it is unlikely to hang around for long. Interestingly while it wasn't possible to see the imprint of the webbing between the toes in the mud itself, the cast actually shows it very clearly.

Returning home I sent the images to Durham Wildlife Trust and they soon confirmed the prints were otter tracks. So there you have it, evidence of a wild Otter close to where I live and in a stream that has previously not recorded any activity - wonderful.

Wednesday, 10 April 2013

A few (mainly record shots) from Upper Teesdale, grabbed during a wander down to
Cow Green reservoir with Al last week. The one of the Grouse is from a few weeks ago when
many of us thought spring was just around the corner.

The B6277 road still had decent sized
drifts.

The other day when I came down it had blown in quite badly
and it was just one lane in places.

Today they were widening the road

The road down to the dam

Drifts at Ashgill Head

Cow Green
Reservoir was well frozen with excellent views of the high Pennine mountains of
Cross Fell, Little Dun Fell and Great Dun Fell. The place where Red Sike enters
seemed to be the only area that was not frozen.

From right to left Cross Fell, Little Dun Fell and
Great Dun Fell.

I thought this was an iceberg but on closer
inspection turned out to be an ice coated boulder .

Saturday, 6 April 2013

We enjoyed a few pleasant and easy walks with friends in the lakes at the
weekend, although at times it was bitterly cold when the wind caught us. That
said despite the snow in the lee of any shelter it was quite warm - not quite
T-shirt weather, but not far off. Lots of folk about but it was easy to find a
bit of solitude and take in the views.

To start with we headed off from
Castlerigg Farm and headed up to Walla Crag. The sun was high by the time we got
there so it was a bit of a challenge getting correctly exposed images. Sometimes
the exposure metering was spot on but where there were large areas of snow I had
to dial in up to + 1.5 compensation to balance the snow and shadows which made
blown highlights a problem.

Great views of Clough Head and the
Dodds from Walla Crag

Walla Crag and the view west across Derwent Water towards Grisedale
Pike

Bleaberry Fell. This is the shoulder just before
the summit

Bleaberry Fell summit 590m with Skiddaw
behind

Next we headed off across increasingly soft snow to High
Seat. It was bitterly cold in the strong wind but wonderful in the shelter of
the summit crags. The views were cracking.

The summit trig on High Seat 608m and the view
east towards Helvellyn

The view northwest towards Grisedale Pike,
Bassenthwaite Lake and beyond into Scotland where we could clearly see the snow
capped Galloway Mountains

We then descended to Ashness Bridge before
making our way back over to Walla crag and then down to our start point. Its
nice to feel the sun.

About David

This blog is to share some of my outdoor experiences from the dark side of the lens.
On here you will find a mix of images from my personal and commercial image collections, as well as articles, gear reviews, news and general outdoor related content. My intention is simply to highlight the beauty and diversity of the natural world and to attempt to portray a little of what it means to me.
If you would like to see more of my work please visit my photography website: http://www.bluestoneimages.com/